Ukraine's Post-Revolutionary Leaders Must Go

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright April 20, 2014
All Rights Reserved.                                     

               Appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press” with David Gregory, 39-year-old interim Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk appealed to what’s left to the old McCarthy crowd [communist paranoics], asking the U.S. government to rebuild the Ukrainian military.  Putin “has a dream to restore the Soviet Union—and Putin meeting that dream would be disastrous for the rest of the world,” Yatsenyuk told Gregory, asking the U.S. for funds to rebuild the Ukrainian military.  When Ukraine’s new post-revolutionary government led by 49-year-old interim President Oleksandr Turchivov and Yatsenyuk ordered the military to retake Russian separatist cities in Eastern Ukraine, the army refused to fight.  Now Yatsenyuk has the nerve to appear on U.S. national TV pleading for military and humanitarian aid when the Feb. 22 revolution demanded ties to the European Union.

             Telling Gregory, “everyday he [Putin] goes further and further,” Yatsenyuk, suggesting that Russian President Vladimir Putin was hell-bent on capturing the Soviet Union’s former republics, including Ukraine.  “And God knows where is the final destination,” said Yatsenyuk, accusing Putn’s Russian Federation of a Hitler-like master plan to dominate Europe and the former Soviet republics.  Watching the Ukrainian military’s refuse to fight reflects directly on the failure of the post-revolutionary government to represent a majority of Ukrainians.  On Turchinov and Yatsenyuk’s orders, Ukrainian soldiers refused to fight their Eastern Ukrainian, Russian-speaking brothers.  Now Yatsenyuk, instead of stepping down, comes to the U.S. with cup-in-hand  to whip up anti-Russian sentiment at a time when U.S.-Russian relations hit the lowest point since the Cold War.

             Yatsenyuk’s anti-Russian arguments were so egregious, so transparent, so self-serving that it should sicken anyone listening.  “I consider that the biggest disaster of this century would be restoring of the Soviet union under the auspices of President Putin,” making the same politically incorrect mistake as Georgian President Mikheil Saakaskavili before he antagonized Putin into invading Georgia Aug. 7-16, 2008.  Appearing on U.S. TV denouncing Putin, Yatsenyuk hopes to antagonize Putin into moving Russian troops across the Eastern Ukrainian border, triggering more U.S. and EU sanctions and possibly Western military intervention.  Yatsenyuk comes to the U.S. to make his appeal because he’s been given the cold shoulder in the EU.  No one in the EU wants to be dragged into a confrontation with Russia to back Ukraine’s post-revolutionary government when it lacks popular support.

             When 64-year-old former Russian-backed Ukrainian President Viktor Yahukovich rejected an EU proposal Nov. 30, 2012 in preference for one with Moscow, the U.S.-and EU-backed protest movement led by 49-year-old former Ukrainian heavyweight champion Vitale Klitschko toppled the government Feb. 22.  While Klitsckho has fallen off the map, the alleged reason for the revolution was Yanukovich’s rejection of the EU.  Now Yatsenyuk comes to the U.S. asking for cash to back his post-revolutionary government that neither command the military not has popular support.  “We need a strong and solid state,” said Yatsenyuk, justifying his public request for military and financial aid.  “We need financial and economic support.  We need to overhaul the Ukrainian military.  We need to modernize our security and military forces,” said Yatsenyuk.

             Yatsenyuk asks the U.S. government to bankroll Ukraine’s economic disaster that former President Yanukovich tried to fix last December with a $16 billion bailout from Moscow.  Yatsenyuk hopes the U.S. remains blinded by its lingering Cold War fever to coax conservatives to back his request.  “How can you stop a the nuclear powered state, which is the Russian Federation, that spent billions of dollars to modernize their military instead of Ukraine . . “ said Yatsenyuk, hoping to buffalo enough conservatives already wary of Putin’s motives.  Whether admitted to or not, what irked Putin about toppling Yanukovich was an illegitimate band of self-serving pro-Western Ukrainians hijacking the duly elected government.  Instead of jumping on the bandwagon, Western governments should have acted more cautiously before accepting self-serving revolutionary motives.

             Asking for the U.S. to bail out the Ukraine, completely upends the alleged reason behind the Feb. 22 revolution to develop closer ties to the EU.  Now that Turchinov and Yatsenyuk see that there’s no free ride with EU or International Monetary Fund, they ask Uncle Sam to bail out Ukraine.  Whipping up fears of nuclear dominatio0in and anti-Semitism, Yatsenuk hopes of bamboozle enough conservatives to squeeze cash out of the White House and Congress.  Instead of letting Yanukovich work out Ukraine’s economic disaster with Moscow, Ukraine’s post revolutionary government reveals its real motives:  Seize Ukraine and hope the U.S. bails out its economic disaster.  All the talk of Russian nukes and anti-Semitism are cleverly designed to squeeze cash from Uncle Sam.  Turchinov and Yatsenyuk won’t admit they don’t represent Ukraine and should immediately step down.